Every once in a while, a movie will come along with a title that seems so preposterous you can’t help but pay attention. It happened back in 2006 with the action movie, Snakes on a Plane; it happened once more in 2014 with the horror-comedy, Zombeavers; and it has occurred again this week with the release of Cocaine Bear.
The movie – loosely inspired by true events – is a dark, action horror-comedy, from director Elizabeth Banks. Cocaine Bear stars Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, and the late Ray Liotta, and presents the ‘what if’ scenario: What if a 500lb American black bear snorted a bag of cocaine?
In the movie, the year is 1985 and a drug trafficker, flying a plane over Georgia, drops millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine out of the aircraft. The cocaine – which is divided up into small packages and held within a duffle bag – falls to the ground, landing in a nature reserve in the mountains.
A short while after the drugs land, some of the packages are found by a female black bear, who promptly ingests the cocaine. The drug quickly affects the bear, making it very aggressive in the process.
When word gets out that the drugs have landed in the mountains, a known drug dealer sends his son and his son’s friend into the nature reserve to track down the cocaine. At the same time, a police officer heads to the mountains, looking for the drugs, while two local children head into the nature reserve after skipping school to go on a hike.
What none of these people are aware of, is that a cocaine-fuelled bear is lurking amongst the trees. They are also oblivious to one very significant detail: This coked-up bear is no Gentle Ben, and now it has had a taste of the hard stuff, it wants more!
Ok, so I think it is fair to say that any film with the title ‘Cocaine Bear’ should be approached with the understanding that this is going to be B-Movie stuff. If you’re aiming for high-brow, award-winning material, then you don’t title your movie Cocaine Bear, and you also don’t centre the plot around a blow-sniffing animal, completely off its tits!
That said, it’s worth noting there is a lot of talent involved in this picture, so don’t write it off as low-rent trash. Actress and director Elizabeth Banks is calling the shots; the writing team behind this picture include The Lego Movie’s Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, as well as The Babysitter’s Brian Duffield; and the music is by Mark Mothersbaugh – composer of various movie and television themes, including ‘90s favourite, Rugrats.
So, while Cocaine Bear is daft, disposable nonsense, it isn’t just some garbage that is being dumped out by Universal Pictures – a great deal of time and effort has gone into this film. As such, while it has all the hallmarks of a B-movie, it is a B-movie with a bit more clout and a lot more thought.
Yes, Cocaine Bear is more or less the movie you expect it to be, but it is a playful film that isn’t afraid to lean into its absurd premise. From the opening moments, the movie makes it clear this is supposed to be a silly piece of horror fluff, and so long as you’re willing to go along with it, you’ll have some fun.
As you will no doubt have gathered from the premise, there isn’t a lot of plot in this movie. The film is essentially a story about a bear going nuts in the woods, while on the hunt for cocaine, and bumping off anyone that gets in the way.
The core cast of characters fill in specific stock roles) a dangerous drug dealer, a mom looking for her lost child, an out-of-shape cop, etc), and they mostly exist in the film as fodder for the bear. Some of the characters in the movie survive, some don’t, and there are plenty of bloody kills along the way.
Most of these kills are over-the-top sequences, designed to draw out laughs, and this is where the film really thrives. The more Cocaine Bear delves into the ‘human vs. beast’ angle of the picture, the more it becomes likeable stuff.
One very enjoyable sequence involves an ambulance chase, while there is also much fun to be had with a stand-off in a ranger hut. These sequences are bonkers, but that’s what this movie is all about, and this is where Cocaine Bear works best.
Where the film is not so great, is during some of the sequences in between. Once the kills are taken care of, and the bear is off screen for a while, the reality of the paper-thin plot kicks in and the movie becomes less fun.
Cocaine Bear is definitely a movie filled with peaks and troughs. There are certain points in the movie which are great, and will produce belly laughs, but at the same time it does have periods where it loses momentum, and this expose weaknesses in some of the writing.
If you are going into this film believing it to be a laugh-riot, and fast-paced fun, then maybe lower your expectations. Instead, go into the picture with the understanding that you will get some rough with the smooth, and it’ll play much better.
On the whole, Cocaine Bear gets more things right than it gets wrong, ensuring there is enough punch in this film to provide the required amount of entertainment. All the scenes of the rampaging bear are both enjoyable and amusing, director Elizabeth Banks nails the right tone and the correct level of blood and gore, and all the cast do everything they need to.
Cocaine Bear isn’t amazing, it does struggle in places, but it is likeable and better than some of the dross I’ve watched this week (Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, The King’s Daughter, etc). My advice is to remain seated for the action sequences, nip to the bathroom during the slower parts, and you’ll not go wrong.
Should you want to check it out for yourself, Cocaine Bear is new to UK and US cinemas from today.
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